1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic method for producing endless tape such as that used in connection with repetitious announcements, visual displays and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to produce an endless tape for use in announcing machines and the like type of audio and video reproducing devices, it is common for an operator to manually take the leading and trailing ends of a given length of tape and connect the same together. However, this particular technique encounters the drawbacks that the production is relatively difficult and the precision with the connection of the ends is made is less than desired. That it to say, this manual technique results in the ends being offset either a little to the left or the right. Further, the unusable portion which results from the joining operation is apt to cause damage to the remaining portion of the tape.
In order to overcome these problems an arrangement via which an endless tape could be produced automatically has been proposed in JP-A-64-17222. However, this arrangement includes the use of a leader tape and the like and is extremely complicated.